Lev: Can NBA draft ever reach NFL-level hype?

Mark Gross, who oversees NBA coverage for ESPN, says the NBA draft can become a bigger deal than it currently is. Circle-the-calendar big. Unofficial-sports-holiday big. NFL big?

"I've worked on both," Gross, a senior vice president and executive producer for ESPN, said by phone this week in advance of Thursday night's surprise-filled festivities. "I love the magnitude and buzz that surrounds the NFL draft. Part of it is the buildup, part of it is it's football; it's the most popular sport in the country.

"I don't think the NBA draft is far from that. With a couple of tweaks, we can get there."

I wouldn't go that far, but you can't blame Gross for being hopeful. His job is to help put together the best NBA draft show possible, regardless of the hurdles inherent in that position.

Let's face it: The NBA draft isn't the NFL draft, just as the NBA isn't the NFL. The NFL draft is an unofficial sports holiday, benefiting from months of hype and the popularity of college football, where players become household names over the course of multiple seasons. The NFL draft is such a big hit that the league moved it to prime time and split it up over three days.

ESPN's coverage of the first round of the NFL draft in April averaged 6.2 million viewers. (NFL Network drew an additional 1.5 million.) The 2012 NBA draft averaged less than half that total, coming in at 2.959 million.

The NBA draft doesn't have that buildup period, arriving within weeks of the season's conclusion. Because players can leave college after one year – and the most talented ones typically do – prospects lack name recognition and immediate-impact readiness. The NBA draft also is littered with international players who are even less recognizable to casual fans.

ESPN can't do anything about any of that. All it can do is optimize the draft-show experience for its audience. It attempted to do that Thursday with a variety of tweaks, the biggest one being the composition of its commentating team.

ESPN replaced Jeff Van Gundy, a superb NBA analyst with limited knowledge of college personnel, with Jalen Rose and Bill Simmons. That was a wise move. Van Gundy always had that "Why am I here?" look about him during the draft. Rose covers both colleges and the pros for ESPN and did a good job of toeing that line on draft night. Simmons injected humor and an NBA-draft-geek perspective that might have come across as awkward with different co-hosts. But neither Rece Davis nor Jay Bilas takes himself too seriously, so the experiment generally worked.

ESPN also enlisted Miami Heat forward Shane Battier to conduct interviews. Battier is among the most eloquent interview subjects in the NBA, but I didn't think he added much to the telecast.

The biggest problem ESPN encountered Thursday was trying to keep up with the rapid flow of information. Much like the NFL draft, news got out on Twitter before it did on TV. But that's another topic for another day.

HIRE COMES WITH A KISS

Big East basketball will have a different look this season, but it'll have a familiar voice.

Fox Sports 1 hired longtime ESPN and CBS college basketball analyst Bill Raftery to serve as the lead Big East game analyst for the fledgling all-sports network. Raftery will team with Gus Johnson, whom he worked with at times at CBS.

"In teaming Bill with Gus, we have reunited the most energized, entertaining college basketball broadcast team ever, and we can't wait for them to work their first game," Fox Sports executive vice president and executive producer John Entz said in a statement.

FS1 launches Aug. 17. It is slated to televise more than 100 Big East regular-season games, starting Nov. 8.

REMOTE PATROL

Kirk Herbstreit, the lead college football analyst for ESPN and ABC, signed a contract extension through 2022, ESPN announced. New on Herbstreit's plate this fall: teaming with Colin Cowherd for regular Tuesday appearances on "College Football Live." ...

Max Kellerman is now the full-time co-host of ESPN2's "SportsNation," where he teams with his afternoon partner on KSPN/710, Marcellus Wiley. Kellerman replaces Charissa Thompson, who reportedly is returning to Fox Sports, where she worked earlier in her career. ...

Atlanta Falcons linebacker and Long Beach product Brian Banks told his inspirational comeback story to "The Rich Eisen Podcast," which is available on NFL.com and iTunes. ...

"Venus Vs.," the story of Venus Williams' quest to procure fair pay for women in tennis, is the first installment of ESPN Films' "Nine for IX" series. The documentary premieres at 5 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN. ...

Five high school football prospects, including Bellflower's Jaleel Wadood, are expected to announce verbal commitments during ESPNU's coverage of The Opening airing Monday-Wednesday. ...

Viewership of the Stanley Cup Final on NBC and NBC Sports Network was up 91 percent over last year, peaking with 8.16 million viewers for Monday's series-ending Game 6. ...

Game 7 of the NBA Finals delivered 26.3 million viewers, the second-biggest audience ever for an NBA game on ABC. How does that figure stack up against the NFL? Well, it would have ranked ninth last year – among regular-season games. ...

I can't recall a negotiation playing out more publicly – or incrementally – than the one between the Clippers and Celtics. It was just the latest example of Twitter's unique capacity to deliver the blow-by-blow of a story as it's unfolding. ...

If you haven't already, be sure to check out Brian Windhorst's oral history of the 2003 NBA draft on ESPN.com. A really good and interesting read. ...

Too many networks falsely believe that more is more when it comes to studio shows. NHL Network proved that a five-person set can work. The team of Kathryn Tappen, Mike Johnson, Kevin Weekes, Doug Weight and Darren Pang was consistently excellent on the network's Stanley Cup Final postgame show.